French Consulate

The French Consulate was the government of France from 10 November 1799 to 18 May 1804, succeeding the French Directory and preceding the First French Empire. The consulate was created as the result of the Coup of 18 Brumaire, during which general Napoleon Bonaparte seized power from the Directory and became "First Consul" of France. The consulate was an authoritarian, autocratic, and centralized republican government, and it is often called a "military dictatorship" by historians. In 1804, a plebiscite led to Napoleon becoming Emperor of the French Empire, a new state.